Dangerous parts of Margao building demolished by PWD

Panaji: The public works department (PWD) on Thursday morning began demolishing the dangerous and hanging portions of the Holy Family building near Cine Lata, which pose a threat to the public in the area.

The office of the deputy collector and the Salcete sub-divisional magistrate on Thursday issued a clarification, refuting reports that there was a collapse of a portion of the Holy Family building. The office clarified that the South Goa collector, under Section 30(2) of the Disaster Management Act 2005, removed the hanging structures as a preventive measure to safeguard public safety on the basis of a technical assessment carried out by the PWD SD-2 works division VIII.

Salcete deputy collector Ganesh Barve said that of the 21 listed unsafe buildings, an inspection of seven was already carried out along with the PWD and municipal engineers. “Two buildings have been found to have dangerous portions, which could fall and hence needed to be demolished. We submitted a report to the collector and the collector passed an order. PWD on Thursday morning removed the offending portions of the Holy Family building near Cine Lata,” he said.

“The removal was a controlled operation conducted under the technical supervision of the PWD works division VI and as such cannot be termed as a “collapse”, and the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) staff were deployed only to clear the debris generated during this lawful preventive action,” the statement issued by Ganesh Barve’s office stated.

He also reiterated that the administration remains vigilant and committed to public safety and added that the dangerous hanging portions of the Dias building too will be demolished.